GSC Resolutions Address Harassment

By Sarah Keightley

Associate News Editor

The Graduate Student Council adopted a resolution which addresses three
problems with the current sexual harassment policy and recommends changes
to solve these problems. Along with these suggestions to the
administration, the GSC plans to create a student help group for victims of
sexual harassment.

Mary E. Herndon G, who worked on the resolution as part of the GSC Housing
and Community Affairs Committee, said "the university needs to be a little
more serious in dealing with harassment... . There are a lot of people in
the administration who really care, but there's no enforcement."

If a victim wants to file a complaint, "there is no formalized procedure.
[This] definitely should be changed because it discourages people from
coming forward." The administration thinks "it's all okay now because
they've handed out the brown booklet [Stopping Sexual Harassment at
MIT]."

The GSC resolution, adopted at its Feb. 20 meeting, is a petition asking
the administration to change certain parts of the policy. "We listed three
problems we found in the current policy, and we made some recommendations
we would like to see MIT adopt," Herndon said.

The first problem is that there is no "set of official guidelines for how
individuals who receive complaints should deal with the complaints," though
there are seminars, Herndon said. Cases are currently handled in different
ways with "unsatisfactory and even unjust outcomes," and confidentiality is
not provided because of a "lack of a standardized policy," she added.

"Our recommendations are that the MIT administration come up with a clear,
specific, and standardized sets of guidelines for administrative response,"
she said. "Strict attention" must be paid to the confidentiality of both
parties and to the prevention of retribution by the alleged harasser. She
added that the timeliness of complaint resolution is also an issue.

The second problem with the current policy is that although the published
guide lists numerous people who can be contacted about harassment
incidents, there is no official requirement that these individuals be
trained, Herndon said.

"This seemed contradictory to us... . There's no guarantee if you go to
someone in the department that the person you see even understands the
rules of confidentiality or will handle your case properly," Herndon
said.

"One of the things that is kind of irritating" is that an employee's status
as a harassment contact "is not even in their job description -- it's
really kind of crazy when you think about it," Herndon said.

The resolution cites a lack of centralization as the third problem. There
is "no systematic record-keeping of sexual harassment complaints."

Herndon said the resolution recommends that MIT adopt a standardized
procedure for documentation of harassment complaints, including those made
anonymously. This could be accomplished if there were a central office in
charge of sexual harassment, according to Herndon.

Peer counseling group created

Another part of the GSC's work is creating the Advocates for Victims of
Sexual Harassment at MIT. The group would provide peer counseling for
students, staff, and faculty.

Herndon said harassment is often different for graduate students than it is
for undergraduates. "They've done one survey [for undergraduates]; they
haven't done anything on graduate students ... the university doesn't take
it seriously enough to even find out if there's a problem with graduate
students."

Julie Gupta G disagreed. She does not believe MIT is biased one way or the
other. She also does not think the incidence of sexual harassment is
"higher than that of undergrads, even though the graduate departments are
more highly male."

Herndon believes the incidence of sexual harassment among graduate students
is quite notable. She said of her female graduate student friends, "I can't
think of one who hasn't had an incident, though it might be very minor."
Herndon has been harassed.

The Ad Hoc Group on Sexual Harassment, formed by students in 1988, came up
with its own policy, which the administration did not adopt. Herndon said
the GSC recommended that this policy or a similar one be adopted. The ad
hoc group was instrumental in the GSC's work, she said.

Some women at MIT have also written an underground guide to sexual
harassment. The GSC is planning to publish this guide and make it available
free to graduate students.

Herndon said, "The reason women really care about this issue is we want to
be treated like equals -- it doesn't have anything to do with anger towards
men."